Potential PS3 customers will be disappointed to learn that Sony’s first PS3 bundle of 2008, based around the 40GB console, costs the exact same as last year’s bundle based around the far superior 60GB console.

The company’s new bundle is a 40GB console with two first party games for £349. For those of you that need a recap, the inferior 40GB console has two, instead of four, USB slots, no multi-memory card support and no backwards compatibility with PS2 games. For the same money last October you could get the same deal with the 60GB console.

The new deal indicates that Sony has also managed to phase out the 60GB version, to concentrate on the 40GB version.

The saddest thing – apart from Sony trying to fool punters into paying the same money for less kit – is that this year we will most likely see a PS3 with a much bigger hard disk drive.

After all, the Xbox 360 Elite has had a 120GB drive since last year and a measly 40GB is not going to help the PS3 become the ‘heart’ of the living room entertainment system that Sony wants it to be.-Martin Lynch

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